Posts

This December Startup Campus Women interview is with Diana Florescu, an extremely ambitious and strong woman with Romanian origins, currently living in London. Five years ago, when she moved to the UK, she started working with startups and entrepreneurs. She soon decided to ditch the corporate world and run her own company.During her studies, she gained knowledge in digital marketing and did an MSc at UCL about entrepreneurship and how to take your business idea to market. She’s has already been a co-founder and worked in several startups from early-stages to scaleups.

“I joined the first technology startup back in 2015 where I got a flavor of how it is to run a company. Later when I was studying at UCL, I joined a gaming startup and in 2016 I was approached by my first co-founder and established Local Spoon. After my masters, I decided to join Startupbootcamp. They were looking for a Global Marketing Manager so I took on this challenge!“

You mentioned that you were a co-founder at Local Spoon, could you speak about that a little? What was your ambition?

“We had the ambition to reimagine the way we discover and experience our world from restaurants to food markets, events and other tasty experiences. We wanted to save and enrich costumers time, elevate their experience and let them use their reviews and pictures online to make fine dining affordable.

Local Spoon was an exclusive food members club for the digital age where millennials could use their social media influence to unlock unique experiences in return for a membership fee. We’ve worked with giants such as Taste of London and Celebrity Cruise, and in September partnered with London’s first ever brunch festival. Despite all our success, after some time – due to several factors – I decided it was time to move on. “

As you also work with women founders, what would you highlight as their strengths? “Communication and empathy. This allows them to connect with their stakeholders or investors in a meaningful way, through understanding and acknowledging each person’s unique set of complex needs and emotions. Women tend to have better soft skills then men do and can relate to situations and people easily.

Determination – It’s one thing to have an idea for an enterprise, but as many people reading this will know, making it happen is a very difficult thing and it demands extraordinary energy, self-belief and determination, the courage to risk family and home, and a 24/7 commitment that borders on the obsessive.”

In your opinion do you think that investors take women founders as seriously as they do with men?

“The UK is debunking much of the stigma still surrounding women in tech with a lot more organizations and funds specifically designed to support women and women-founded startups. Gender-equality is imperative for every business; in fact, companies should go beyond gender and look at the whole picture including underrepresented categories of founders such as BAME, founders without a university diploma and of all ages.

Of the women I heard from, many of them who raised capital said they experienced bias—largely on the basis of gender. Sometimes, the source of funding really matters – Venture capital vs Angel investment is a different kettle of fish – and getting in the room with the right investors that truly understand your product is crucial.

Often I found myself walking into rooms of mostly men either fundraising or simply having a business meeting. I thought that my age, the fact that I am a woman would decrease my chances to close a deal. Their reaction did not reflect my fears. They were rather intrigued about the business and my drive to take it to the next level. An experienced investor will not only give you a cash injection but offer to share their expertise. Showcase your commitment. Beyond the financial viability of your product and plan, investors want to see your commitment to the business.”

“Startupbootcamp is one of the largest networks of global accelerators with 21 active programs in 17 cities across the world, including London, Amsterdam, Berlin, San Francisco, Dubai, Miami, Mexico City, Melbourne, Shanghai, and many others. 30% of our startups are female-led – a 7% increase from 2017. Together with OneTech, we launched a new programme by Capital Enterprise and JP Morgan Chase Foundation. We have started reviewing and improving our processes to target different communities to increase the diversity of the companies we work with.”

What do you consider as a great accomplishment in your carrier or as a woman?

“My greatest accomplishment is sitting where I am right now. I believe that life is a constant work-in-progress and that all moments, the great huge ones and the small quiet ones, all make-up who I am.

There’re a few good ones I always look back on and smile: winning the Lloyd’s Banking People’s Choice Award with Local Spoon, pitching in front of big corporates such as Tata, PayPal, and many other ventures, or having other startups and young entrepreneurs simply say thank you for mentoring them.

I’m also proud to be a sounding board for our 20+ global marketing teams at Startupbootcamp defining strategies and the way we communicate them to the world. I have a front seat while innovation truly goes global. Just recently we launched our first FinTech program in Cairo to tackle financial exclusion while in Africa we try to address a water challenge, one of the six UN sustainable development goals.”

If you would need to give an advice to a young woman who is planning to launch her own business, what would it be?

“Don’t be humble!
Women sometimes tend to be too self-conscious; they feel reluctant to speak up or to ask for fear of sounding not so knowledgeable. Approach people whom you think are unreachable and be confident in you. I’ve learned to develop my confidence and overcome my negative self-talk and to own my accomplishments over the years.

When you are young and you’re just starting out being taken seriously is a struggle. I built a support network over time and surrounded myself with people that I can trust and I can ask for help when I need it; and because we already discussed failures, failure also should not be viewed as a negative or an excuse for relinquishing your goals.”

So, all you girls out there should get rid of the fear and trust in yourselves and in what you want to achieve. Believe that you are capable of anything with hard work and the right motivation.

On the 29th of November, the Startup Campus V4 Global Tour had reached its final stop. Within the framework of the Regional Startup and Innovation Day, this year for the fifth time the biggest startup pitch competition Get In the Ring! was organized in Hungary.

In February of 2018 our international program, Startup Campus V4 Global Tour was launched with 10 destinations. This program helped nearly 80 V4 Startup companies to get to know such startup ecosystems as New York, London, Tel-Aviv, Istanbul and so on.

The last stop was organized within the frameworks of Startup and Innovation Day. This evening more than 600 ecosystem players, such as angel/venture capital/ corporate investors, startups, international corporate partners took part. The whole night long program kicked off with the Startup and Innovation Award of Hungary, where four winners were announced in four categories.

After a short and refreshing break, the event continued with the V4 regions hottest pitch competition Get in The Ring! V4 Budapest. Get in the Ring is a Global Pitch Competition that invites founders from over 100 countries to pitch their solutions against their opponents in the ring. Get in the Ring! is different from any other startup pitching competition. Pitching in the ring creates an undeniable competitive electricity which means founders are forced to up their game and give a pitch they are proud of. Each round concentrate on a specific topic thus providing crucial information about the startups and prove to the jury why they are the best investment.

This year’s corporate partner of Get In the Ring! V4 Budapest was Hungary’s largest and renowned lighting electronics manufacturer, named Tungsram (est.1896.). Tungsram’s heritage is Innovation thus they were looking for the V4 regions best Smart City and Agritech startup ideas. During the event, Tungsram revers-pitched its needs to which the best 4 finalist startup pitched their solutions.

“In Collaboration with Tungsram we addressed the V4 regions best startup companies. The aim of the event was to boost and help Tungsrams innovational process by providing the best AgriTech and SmartCIty solutions of the V4 countries. This event also represented the last station of Startup Campus V4 Global Tour. Alongside with our professional partners, V4’s Hungarian presidency, Hiventures, and HEPA we were able to provide the possibility of International validation and introduction to 80 startups in 10 international startup ecosystems.” – stated Zsolt Kovács, the managing director of Startups Campus and CEO of Enterprise Hungary

On the 28th of November at the Hungarian Head Quarters of Tungsram Group, eleven V4 region semi-finalist startups got to spend a day with the Tungsram board members and mentors from Startup Campus, NEO Trade and Rocket Shepherd. Here they worked on their pitch techniques. Later during the afternoon, the 4 finalists were chosen who the next day stepped into the ring to fight the final battle.

On the 29th of November 2018. the grand final took place where the two winners were announced: the Hungarian Gremon Systems – AgriTech category and the Czech Indoorway – SmartCity category. They won the golden ticket to Get In The Ring 2019 Global Final and shortly will be starting a co-operation with Tungsram!

The Jury members were the following: Joerg Bauer the President and CEO of Tungsram, Jakub Miller the CEO of InnoEnergy Central Europe, Bence Katona the Deputy CEO of Hiventures, József Szőke the Head of Customer Value Management at Vodafone and Alex Zhigarev the partner of Speedinvest.

The Get In the Ring! V4 Budapest project is co-financed by the Governments of Czechia, Hungary, Poland, and Slovakia through Visegrad Grants from International Visegrad Fund. The mission of the fund is to advance ideas for sustainable regional cooperation in Central Europe.

In our next interview, you will get a chance to hear from Luca Jakab, the proud owner of ArtConsious – a London based startup, which is an online marketplace and knowledge hub for art lovers and collectors. She believes that women have the same opportunities as men within the sphere of startups, and if they use the right soft-skills they can become successful CEO’s.

Please Introduce yourself and your startup

I live in London since 2013, and I am a qualified cultural manager. It was my dream for a very long time to create such an online platform that can connect and represent multiple creative artists and venues, and through which modern art and design trends can be interpreted more easily. Currently, I am working on a new project named ArtConsious. It is an online marketplace and knowledge hub through which artists can introduce themselves to an international market. The site concentrates on the Central-Eastern-European region.

What gave you the idea to create this startup? What was the motivation?

The first time I came across online art-trade was in London. I felt that digitalization and online solutions can boost awareness and help the development of (yet) undiscovered markets, such as the Hungarian one. I have previously managed online galleries in London, and ArtConsious will be a more complex version of these.

Were you not scared to start your company all ‘on your own’ as being ‘just a woman’?

I never had a doubt about women not being capable of things that men are… I was raised and educated by the fact that men and women are equal. Within my family, there are several women who are successful and at the same time independent, so it never really occurred to me as a question if I am capable or not. There were some – mostly Hungarian – women who tried to ‘protect’ me from this project, but within the business world of startups, I never needed to face any hardships. Probably if you would ask me about my experiences in catering I would have a completely different opinion.

What type of obstacles did you come across in the beginning? Do you think they would have been easier to fight if you were a man?

I would not say that these obstacles occurred just because of my gender. I see it day by day that other startuppers regardless of their sex, must face the exact same problems as I do. These are mainly because of external factors (the amount of funds you can access, bureaucracy, technical difficulties) and on the other hand the inner doubts (Am I good enough? Is the idea great enough for the market? Is it possible to develop it fast enough?). I would even dare to say that women are in a better situation since they are more likely to ask for help when they need it and they are not scared to speak about their problems. In my opinion, it isolates men and makes it even harder for them to develop, because most of them are not open about these things.

photo: Zászlós Mariann

What do you think, are the positive aspects of a woman being a Startupper?

Based on international surveys we can state that women’s strengths compared to men are the following: women are better at listening and paying attention to others and their problems. Based on my opinion: they tend to collaborate more, they are less competitive, have less preconceptions and are more open to their surroundings, both emotionally and intellectually.

Also, women are more focused on their personal development, just as motivating their surrounding – this is probably coming from the fact that women are the coherent forces of the families. I believe that women who combine these soft skills with a huge amount of willingness, hard work and wish to prove to the world that they can do it, become the most successful business ladies.

Do you know any specific associations who stand for female Startuppers?

In Hungary, I would outline Women Startup Competition. They try to reach out to as many countries as possible in order to boost women startuppers. In the past 5-10 years, in England a whole industry was developed on the basis of this. Here you can find tons of associations, not even speaking about the outstanding coaches, who provide guidance and consulting to women.

Do you think that investors take you as seriously as they do men?

I can’t judge this realistically, but I can surely tell you this: when you are meeting with an investor you can’t think intuitively, as women tend to. In these situations, you need to think about numbers, statistics and market trends. But these are things that anyone can learn, so I would say women have the same chances.

When you are hiring a new team member, do you prefer to engage men or women?

I really could not care less about this, but if I would really need to choose I would prefer to have a mixed team. I know that there are certain industries that underrepresent one or the other sex because of various reasons. In ours (arts) we have a larger number of women. Therefore, I prefer to use the hiring process that I got used to in England: the candidate does not display his/her picture, sex, age, and origin. Like this, the engager is forced to choose the best candidate based on their qualities and not looks and personal characters. The most important for me is the experience of proficiency!

What do you consider as success?

For me success is when we meet our client’s expectations and keep our promises: give them the opportunity to introduce themselves to an international market (mostly the British), build their partnerships and networks and boost their sales.

What are your plans for the future?

In the upcoming years, I would like to concentrate on my project and to develop the platform and the business strategies, add features and gain more and more partners. Concerning my personal plans, I would like to have my own family one day. There we will see how I can match being a startupper and a mother, but I am sure I will be able to find a solution, as I did to many other things.

What would your advice be for other women, who would like to launch their own startup? What do you think is the most important thing they should pay attention to?

My advice is not to concentrate on the fact that you are a woman, but to concentrate on your strengths and try to get the best out of them, plus find the right team members who add to your values and complete your ‘weaknesses’ with their strengths

http://startupcampus.hu/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/20_2-e1540479313466.jpg36523648Clairehttp://startupcampus.hu/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/sc_logo.pngClaire2018-10-31 14:03:572018-10-31 15:29:43ArtConsious - How women benefit from their soft-skills

The Startup Campus V4 Global Tour to Tel Aviv from September 2-6, 2018 was held within the framework of the 2-day DLD Innovation festival (Sept. 5th and 6th). The tour consisted of workshops, B2B meetings, networking, pitching, in addition to historical sightseeing. Four Hungarian and one Polish startup in the field of Life Sciences and MedTech represented the V4 startup ecosystem including Vitrolink, Viola City, Innoria, DiabTrend, and Electron Square.

On the first official day of the tour, the startups visited Google Campus Tel Aviv to learn about the evaluation process of local MedTech investors, then traveled to Jerusalem where they explored the historical sites with the Diplomat for Cultural and Educational Affairs of the Embassy of Hungary in Tel Aviv, attended a networking event organized by the V4 diplomats, and met with OurCrowd Ltd. venture capital firm representative

The following day, the startups attended an Axis Corporate special edition of workshops and presentations held at the Polish Institute in Tel Aviv opened by the ambassador of Poland, followed by local innovation leaders from MagnaCarta Communications, OurCrowd Ltd venture partners, Applied Value Group, Bluechain Ventures, Axis Innovation, and the Institute of Venture and Global MBA at TAU who prepared the delegation for working with multinational corporations and doing business in the Israeli startup ecosystem.

The third day was spent at the DLD Innovation Festival, attended by 110 delegations from over 40 countries, over presenting 100 startups, and approximately 4,000 guests. At DLD, the startups participated in B2B meetings, networked, and attended panel discussions on a variety of topics, followed by an evening rooftop networking event at Mindpsace Tel Aviv organized by the V4 missions in order to build knowledge about opportunities between the V4 region and Isreal. The networking event commenced with opening remarks by the Ambassadors of Poland and Slovakia, CEO of Enterprise Hungary, the Federation of the Israeli Chamber of Commerce, and more experts on cooperation prospects between CEE and Israel.

The startups returned to the second day of the DLD festival for more B2B meetings and networking on the final day of the tour before returning to their respective home countries.

On the 23rd of July, the delegation of Startup Campus visited the „Industry 4.0 – Startups meet Hidden Champions” investor event, organized by Venture Forum Neckar. We were happy to provide 4 innovative Hungarian startups the chance to convince about 120 visitors, among them mainly investors and decision makers of local SMEs, of their technologies.

Bechtle AG, Germany’s largest independent IT systems integrator and Europe’s leading IT e-commerce provider, was kindly providing space for the conference and exhibition. Representatives from the sponsors Bosch and Sigloch joint the event to discuss the startups’ technologies and explore investment opportunities.

Altogether, 23 startups presented their solutions in form of 8-minute pitches, 90 seconds pitches. The members of the Startup Campus delegation were: Aeriu, the drone-software company for inventory management in big warehouses. AXS Motion System producing wearable technologies for industrial use, combined with an ergonomic evaluation system. Pozi.Tech who digitalize production and supply chain logistics processes by automatic real-time localization of production-related objects, andSFI Engineering who provide modularized automation solutions for car manufactures.

Startup Campus will launch its Industry 4.0 portfolio in September 2018, with a detailed 1-year business development program ensuring conditions for entry to the market and providing support for collaborations with German companies from the industrial sector.

Startup Campus offices opening in 7 destinations – The purpose of the decentralized incubator network is to help mature startups to access international markets and to achieve global expansion. In addition to Budapest, the global program includes interconnected cities such as London, Berlin, Hong Kong, Singapore, Chengdu and Shenzhen, and more destinations coming soon.

The global program focuses on three key industries or technologies of the corresponding ecosystem in each city, led by a local team of professionals and partner network, which provides a local presence for startups. The main task of the bases is to offer personalized support for foreign market entry, with particular emphasis on their inclusion in the given ecosystem, by involving local investment, sales as well as relevant partner networks essential to their growth.

“Quick fish eats big fish! This is one of the basics of our program. With the global network, we aim to accelerate the international validation and market acquisition of innovative businesses. One of the most important things in this competitive world of innovation is time and timing. With our program, we wish to provide an accelerated platform for startups and to help launch them into this global competition. “said Zsolt Kovács, managing director of Enteprise Hungary, the program.

Startup Campus Global Locations and Industry Focuses:

Berlin – Fintech, E-commerce, LifeSciences, Industry 4.0

Budapest – FinTech, CleanTech, E-Commerce

Chengdu – LifeSciences, Agri-Food Tech, Gaming

Hong Kong – Fintech, SmartCity, Blockchain

London – Fintech, CleanTech, Life Sciences

Shenzhen – SmartCity, LifeSciences, CleanTech / Energy

Singapore – FinTech, Big Data, IoT

The two main programs of Startup Campus Global – the three-stage Soft-Landing Program and the Business Validation Tour – provide a dedicated solution to the problems that a startup may face when entering the global market. The main aim of the programs is to build bridges between international markets and startup ecosystems and to facilitate the global expansion of startups.

Between May 6th-13th, 2018, the Startup Campus V4 Global Tour journied across the United States East Coast. At the third destination of the tour, five Hungarian health care startups had the opportunity to validate themselves in the US market and to develop further cooperative relationships at various business-to-business meetings.

During this one-week business trip, startups presented themselves at the Foley and Lardner pitching and networking event in Boston, opened by Dr. László Szabó, Ambassador of Hungary in Washington D.C. In the following days, the teams visited the Cambridge Innovation Center (CIC), MIT’s Media Labs, and participated at another pitch tournament before a diverse group of health care, law and business professionals at the Quinnipiac University.

In New York City, the teams exhibited at TechDay NYC, one of the biggest tech events in the city, after which a musical chairs-style pitch program and networking event was held at the Hungarian Consulate General in New York City, where the teams met several local experts and gained valuable feedback and connections. At the last stop of the East Coast tour, they presented their innovations in Worcester, Massachussetts before the Hungarian Medical Association of America and received several invitations that would allow for further cooperation.

“We see a lot of opportunities between local health and med tech startups and the ecosystem of the USA East coast. The week spent there has resulted in network growth, useful feedback, and startups have been given direct access to American partners. The outgoing startups introduced new perspectives in the USA that, based on experience, can leverage the acquisitions gained here and how to validate themselves in the US market.” said Sebastian Tamás, director of the Hungarian National Trading House, Innotrade program.

In the USA, 6 medtech / health care startups joined the tour; InSimu Patient, a patient-simulation application specially developed for professional use; Vitrolink, advanced technology solutions to assist the pathologist’s daily routine; MED3D, a surgical innovative education system that enables professionals to check the quality of the prepared sutures in detail, and Now Technologies Gyro smart tool that helps people with mobility impairments with headaches in communication and movement, as well as Promobox, with gift packs and information publications to help their mothers with their children. Notch, the first smartphone ready motion capture platform.

Between the 28th and 29th of April 2018, Startup Campus University – Innovative Idea Battle, two-day long event was held, where the region’s university innovations were competing. The best eight team won the chance to introduce themselves and compete further on the 25th of May at the Pioneers Festival, which is held in Vienna. Further, these eight teams also got one-step closer to win the 9 million Forint investment of Hiventures.

More than fifty university teams who had an innovative idea applied for the regional university idea competition. After the selection process sixteen teams were qualified for the semi-finals. The teams had various backgrounds, Austrian, Romanian, Croatian, Polish and Hungarian.

„Talented young entrepreneurs are like a pair of shining eyes. They are the best investment in the future. The aim of Startup Campus University is to make the bright ideas of students from this region more discoverable, and to support them in becoming successful entrepreneurs. We work on making this programme the greatest student start-up competition and community in the region and in Europe in the next three years.” – said Zsolt Kovács, the CEO of Enterprise Hungary.

During the two-day long bootcamp students prepared for the competition with the help of mentors whom were professionals working in the industry. The students reviewed with their mentors their Business Model Canvas, and by receiving constructive feedback, the candidates perfectionized their presentation.

The qualified teams had some truly unique innovations, such as supporting the studies and development of high-school students by using their app called Eddie, which converts 2D models on paper into 3D figures on the users’ phone. The team who represented Overace Tickets had another innovative idea, an app that sells tickets by data control, another team called Meta Flora, which creates healthy drinks that are tailored individually by analysing the buyers’ intestinal flora or TechSpesc, which provides online product support platform.

Furthermore, Xvision from Romania was also qualified for the semi-finals; the project’s aim is to discover on an x-ray any kind of disease automatically in the human body anywhere in the world, without the professional analysis of a doctor by checking the x-ray image. Similarly, Alive Maps was also one of the strongest candidates with its imaginative idea of creating an online map that measures the pollution/ life-quality of the areas.

Two teams came from Croatia who made it to the semi-finals as well; Agronaut, which aims to promote Eastern-European farmers on the greater market and Crustuli, a healthy and nutritious snack developed by young female students from the food-waste of the food-industry.

The finals are going to take place on the 25th of May in 2018, at the Pioneers start-up event in Vienna.

The World Business Angel Forum was held in Istanbul on February 19-20th, 2018, which marked the launch of the Startup Campus V4 Global Tour. At this international conference, five Hungarian and two Polish innovative startups introduced their ideas to key sponsors and partners such as Türk Telekom and Celebi.

The main purpose of the Startup Campus V4 Global Tour is to introduce startups from the V4 region to the international market.

“This event gave us the chance to get to know the Turkish startup community, and a great opportunity to connect our innovation ecosystems. In order to solidify this connection, Startup Campus is organizing a special program this year, during which 10 Turkish startups will have the chance to participate in a week-long European debut event. Budapest is an ideal entry point for Turkish entrepreneurs wishing to join the European market. In addition, we can help our domestic and regional startups to enter the Turkish market in coordination with large Turkish corporate partners.” – said Zsolt Kovács, CEO of Enterprsie Hungary.

The startups who represented from Hungary in Istanbul included Sharekiwi – developing unique telecommunication software solutions, Vitrolink – facilitating the work of pathologists, SoleCall – revolutionizing the market for personal security applications, BauApp – facilitating the digitalisation of construction projects, and Reporter Community – providing online commercial space for newsworthy photos and videos. Poland was represented by Adwise.me, which is an app based recommendation, discount & loyalty program and Fairga.me, which has been created to offer entertainment in a safe and honest landscape.

At the WBAF conference Hungary and the V4 Presidency were represented by Balázs Rákossy, State Secretary for the Use of European Union Resources. In addition, the Startups had the chance to personally present their innovations to the Deputy Prime Minister of Turkey, Sn. Mehmet Şimşek.

The next two stops of the Startup Campus V4 Global Tour, powered by Enterprise Hungary, will be to Berlin and New York City. The application for both stops is now open, for which the organizers have highlighted the following industry focusses:

Before the Get in the Ring! Budapest international startup competition, Enterprise Hungary organizes a startup competition in Győr, in the Mobilis Interactive Exhibition Centre, in collaboration with the István Széchenyi University on the 10th of November 2016.
8 teams can fight in the competition before a professional jury to get in the best 16 teams of Get in the Ring! Budapest!
The event is free for everybody. After the exciting fights viewers we will host a networking night.